Spoiler Alert! I discuss some plot details. If you don’t want to know, then long story, short, it’s another great addition to the Galaxy’s Edge series. It’s full of daring heroics, brilliant battle scenes and fascinating characters trying to survive the downfall of the Galactic Republic.

Up until “Message for the Dead,” Jason Anspach and Nick Cole had made their series, Galaxy’s Edge about the conflict between the factions fighting for control of the Galactic Republic. The Legion has attempted to maneuver in the military, moral and political space between the corrupt civilian government of the Republic (The House of Reason) and the active military enemies of the Republic represented by the zhee, the Mid Core Rebellion (MCR) and the Black Fleet Forces of Goth Sullus (now known as the Empire). But by the conclusion of the previous volume (Turning Point) the Legion had used their constitutional authority to denounce the House of Reason, to force an investigation of their corruption and to call for new elections. This looked like a step forward to resolving the crisis and allowing the Legion to concentrate on the external military threat. Hah!

In Message for the Dead FUBAR is the order of the hour and all hell breaks loose. The main battle scene in the space around the Republic’s capitol planet Utopion is a swirling cauldron of death for all the fighting forces, Republic Navy, Legion, Black Forces and the MCR. But none of them are prepared for the arrival of the Cybar. They are the biggest wild card in the battle and their allegiance is misunderstood by most of the combatants.

And in this book, we finally learn the depths of X’s duplicity. He’s been using the Legion, the House of Reason and the Black Fleet as chess pieces in his own merciless campaign to reshape the Galaxy’s government through violent crisis. We finally get to hear his specific plan and his self-justification from his own lips.

And in the foreground of the story is the Legion’s best soldiers, Victory Squad. In various situations, they and their friends fight to save civilization from the predators and the tyrants. But by the end of the story they are fighting just to stay alive. At the beginning of the book Captain Keel recruits friends and even enemies to help him rescue his shipmates from the Cybar mother ship. By the end of the book Keel is called on to repay the favor by rescuing Major Chun and all that is left of Victory Squad from the midst of a planetary extermination operation being perpetrated by the Cybar.

Well, now that Anspach and Cole have destroyed everything in sight I guess they’ll have to write about ten more books to try and put humpty-dumpty back together again. These boys are really getting it done. I read these books as fast as I get my hands on them. They balance the story between the military action, science fiction elements and the human interest in the characters. The sheer number of characters they create is impressive but the detail is there and that helps keep the reader’s interest from flagging.

Interestingly, the story is now introducing an aspect that seems to be an echo of older mythology. It’s too early to tell but I think there is an almost Tolkienian plot element being introduced. Of course, this is a guess on my part. What has occurred is so far only a suggestion of a plot direction. We’ll see.

Hail Galaxy’s Edge. Long may you torture your legionnaires and my bank account.

Followers of my reviews of Jason Anspach’s and Nick Cole’s Galaxy’s Edge series know I am an avid fan. Each volume has expanded the scope and depth of the imaginary universe that Galaxy’s Edge inhabits. But “Turning Point” represents a sea change in the story. It literally represents the turning point of the war. For whereas each volume has included heroic resistance by the Legion to the enemies of the Republic, the corrupt regime of the House of Reason has always had free rein to sabotage every effort to save the Galaxy from its many enemies. But in this episode, the mask is off and the Legion is unleashed to fight war as war should be fought, on equal terms. To fight a treacherous foe without quarter and pay back sadistic evil with a merciless reckoning. How sweet it is.

The story revolves around the decision by the House of Reason to arm the barbaric zhee with cutting edge weaponry and ships. These fictional zhee are modelled after Islamic jihadis and they have a propensity for suicide bombings and decapitations that immediately reminds the reader of the Al Qaeda maniacs hiding out in the slums of Baghdad waiting for a chance to ambush any unlucky American soldiers guarding the Green Zone or manning a Forward Operating Base (FOB). The other bizarre touch is that the zhee have donkey heads. Now maybe this is the authors’ idea of political humor but it is truly a weird image for me.

The House of Reason is playing some kind of three-dimensional chess where they use the Black Fleet or the zhee to weaken the Legion so that the House can maintain control of the Galaxy even if it risks one of these enemies threatening to destroy the Republic itself.

In several of the earlier volumes there have been memorable battles portrayed, especially in Attack of Shadows and Legionnaire. But Turning Point brings it to a new level. Several new characters are very memorable but it’s the action that stays with you. The set up is dire and just to make sure things don’t get easier there is treachery at the highest levels. And the zhee are so despicable it’s hard to not enjoy every single gore-flinging kill. The struggles, reversals, heroic sacrifices and exhausted victories keep your attention right to the end of the book.

And finally, the end of the book is a catharsis that the readers have been waiting for since book one of the series. I won’t spoil it by giving details but I will say that the writers have given the readers what they needed and deserved, revenge.

Anspach and Cole have justified my loyalty through the whole series and now I’ll continue on to (!) Book Eight? Sure, why not? How many modern science fiction series not only provide fantastic mil-sci-fi action but also make fun of Progressives, the Deep State, Democrats and Al Qaeda all at the same time? Not many that I know of. So, in the words of the Legion, KTF and Ooah!

For the readers who are unfamiliar with the Galaxy’s Edge series let me say up front that I am a big fan of the story and if you want to hear about the beginning of the series then go back to my review of Book 1 – Legionnaire. For the rest of you who have been following my reviews then let me start off by saying that “Prisoners of Darkness” is good stuff. Several of the story threads are advanced and the plots and characters are interesting and fun. Several new reveals occur that show additional complexity to one of the newer threads. And the newer aspects of the plot seem to be leading in a totally unexpected direction. All really good stuff. But here we are at Book Six and I’m getting the idea that maybe there will never be an end (at least not within my lifetime). Of course, I’m being slightly facetious but what I’m getting at is I think authors are building up a fictional universe that they can continue to spin into different story arcs. And that’s alright. Jason Anspach and Nick Cole have built a very entertaining universe. I would say if we were comparing the Star Wars universe to Galaxy’s Edge that the latter is orders of magnitude better in every way. The characters, plots and atmosphere are far superior.

But back to the story. Prisoners of Darkness has as one of its threads, the rescue operation of one of the Legion’s officers from a prison planet. The action is a result of the aftermath of the Battle of Tarrago where the Legion ignored the orders of the House of Reason and destroyed the critical assets of the Tarrago shipyards to deny them to the Empire. The imprisoned officer learns some important aspects of the Republic’s relation to some criminal enterprises. These will seemingly have a bearing on how the Legion will interact with the civilian government of the Republic, namely the House of Reason. And that’s to the good. For some time, it has seemed unreasonable that the Legion would defer to the corrupt and incompetent leadership of the Republic. But come to think of it, that seems to be the case in our own conflicted and afflicted republic.

Another aspect of the story is the conflicted allegiance of Captain Ford. His time as an independent agent has loosened his loyalty to the Legion and the danger to his kidnapped crew members tears him away from the Legion responsibilities that command Chun and his team to risk a desperate rescue mission for the sake of a Legion brother. This ambivalence will probably rear its head again when the Legion and the Empire come to terms with the common threat they will both face farther down the road.

Okay, so the story is great and I’m loving the series and I can’t wait to see where this goes. Just be aware this isn’t even close to finished. So, make sure you’re in it for the long haul. You have been warned.

Jason Anspach and Nick Cole have now consistently produced a series of military science fiction adventure stories that compares favorably to the better products in the genre from whatever era one might choose. And I am being specific. This is science fiction not Tolstoy. The criterion is enjoyment not enlightenment or prose purity. They write a story that has interesting characters caught up in a cataclysmic moment in the history of their science fictional civilization. With respect to the question I asked in the review of the first installment, that is whether the authors could build on a well written military science fiction story about a small battle and produce a series that holds the reader’s interest, the answer is an emphatic yes! Here we are at book five and I’m completely sold. The story keeps expanding and becoming more complex and interesting. The range of characters keeps growing and they are varied and entertaining. Once again, this is not deathless prose. It is a very well written science fiction series that can hold its head up among any of the favorites in its genre.

Getting back to the review of the book, the action begins before the end of the previous volume, “Attack of Shadows.” In that book, the Black Fleet was attacking Tarrago in order to capture its shipyards. The Republic and the Black Fleet needed those shipyards for the coming war. The majority of the present book chronicles a kill team working to destroy those shipyards. And like the battle scenes from the earlier books the action is non-stop and well written. We renew our acquaintance with Dark Ops Team Victory. And then the story collides with Wraith and his shipload of oddballs. Here two threads of the larger story touch and the last quarter of the book lurches off in a completely unexpected direction and we meet an even more sinister force than Goth Sullus. In fact, I’m starting to like old Goth. He seems conflicted about having to kill old friends. I’m really looking forward to a more thorough understanding of his back story. I won’t go into details but suffice it to say that the new threat to the Galaxy is much more existential than the Black Fleet and its leader.

“Sword of the Legion” is lots of fun and is one more stepping stone in the journey that is Galaxy’s Edge. If you’ve come this far you either like the series or you have an OCD thing going on. This book is highly recommended.

The fourth installment in the Galaxy’s Edge series is a straight up mil-sf story chronicling the Battle of Tarrago. In this sense, it most resembles the first book in this series, “Legionnaire.” But whereas Legionnaire involved a small force of soldiers scrambling to survive on the outskirts of a larger action, “Attack of Shadows” is the chronicle of a full-blown invasion that plays out not only on the surfaces of a planet and its moon but also in open space. There is a full contingent of minor characters and any number of set pieces. There are dog fights between attack fighters, pitched infantry battles, kamikaze bombing runs and battle ships going toe to toe with the big guns. And then there is Goth Sullus, basically the bogey man. He is probably modelled after Darth Vader and shares many of his abilities and personality traits. If you’ve been following my book reviews of the series then you know that the authors have obviously riffed on some of the central features of the Star Wars story. There is a Galactic Republic rapidly turning into an Empire. Corrupt leaders are forcing normally loyal military men to become outlaws and apparently there is no shortage of smugglers, bounty hunters, space pirates and even princesses! And surprisingly, the imitation is far superior to the original. The characters are infinitely more interesting, the plots actually make sense and the action is extremely well done.

One of the interesting features of the story is the civil war aspect to the conflict. Basically, the fighting is taking place between Legionnaires fighting on both sides. And whereas the leaders on both sides are often shown as underhanded there are no cardboard cutout villains in the trenches fighting for either side. Valor is prominently on display on both sides and realistically, it is often rewarded with death.

Because of the large number of subplots and characters, the chapters are broken down into a very large number of independent scenes that ping pong the action back and forth between the two sides and the multiple locations. But the storytelling doesn’t suffer because of it and my interest was never lost.

From my point of view this book confirmed my feeling that the military sf aspects of this series are the best part of it. When the series veers into other scenarios like espionage or individual adventures the story is satisfactory but when the battle scenes erupt the story sings. It is definitely their strong suit.

So the rebels are led by Darth Vader. Who am I supposed to be cheering for? Actually, at this point I’m cheering for Darth Vader, uh, I mean Goth Sullus. And based on the way the elite leadership of the Republic despises the general population of the galaxy I wouldn’t be surprised if Goth takes of his helmet and is revealed to be Donald Trump.

So, do I have any complaints? Yes, there are a few too many women running their military and flying their fighter ships. But at least they don’t appear to be feminist scolds. And they haven’t tried to add women to the Legion. That elite fighting force is all men. So on balance no real problems with the world building.

Summing up, “Attack of Shadows” is the most entertaining book so far in the Galaxy’s Edge series and I highly recommend it to fans of military science fiction.

Kill Team is the third installment of the Galaxy’s Edge science fiction series. But chronologically it occurs immediately after the end of Legionnaire, the first volume in the series. Kill Team is a two track story. One track tells the story of the surviving members of Legion Company Victory after the Battle of Kublar and how they become re-integrated into the task force attempting to prevent a decapitation attack meant to topple the Republic. The other track is a spy story following an undercover agent working to prevent the same attack.

The story is well told. But for my tastes the adventures of the Legionnaires is more engaging. The morally ambiguous role of the spy and the way that the writer portrays his internal conflict isn’t as much fun as the mil-sf adventures of Victory Company.

The story line serves to provide back story to some characters that first appeared in Galactic Outlaws, volume two of the series. And this was, in my opinion necessary. Quite a big gap existed between the story lines in Legionnaire and Galactic Outlaws. Kill Team makes sense of some of the dramatic changes in the intervening period.

My verdict for Kill Team is positive. Although, as I said I enjoyed the Victory Company track more than the spy track the story holds up well and builds on the strong characters that made Legionnaire so enjoyable. Kudos to Anspach and Cole. They’ve extended their winning streak and I’ll go for the fourth volume. I want to see just how bleak their empire crashing vision will be.

Back in January I reviewed Legionnaire, the first volume in the Galaxy’s Edge series by Jason Anspach & Nick Cole. That story was a straight up mil-sf story set in a future where the human race has spread into the galaxy and formed a “Republic” of worlds. At the point in this Universe’s history that Legionnaire takes place, the Republic is beginning to devolve into an empire, ruled over by an elite that controls the rich central systems, with an underclass occupying the rest of the galaxy and the edge of the galaxy as an outlaw haven where even the powerful Legion can do little but skirmish with the rebels and pirates that abound out there. By the end of that story it’s apparent that all the skill and valor of the remnant of faithful soldiers is being frittered away for political points by the bureaucrats that call the shots and wield the Legion as a bludgeon against the innocent inhabitants of the poorer sectors of the Republic. As I said back in January, it is an engaging military tale.

So, what have Anspach and Cole done for an encore? It appears that Legionnaire merely set the stage for the main event. This is going to be a space opera of epic proportions. And it’s easy to see what they intend to do is follow the space opera play book but dial it up to eleven. And in doing so they are following in a long tradition. Most recently, George Lucas mined that vein for all it would pay with his Star Wars franchise. His rebels revolting against a republic that has turned into an evil empire is the latest iteration of a story that goes back to the actual Roman Empire and the tales of Brutus and Spartacus and Masada.

And when I say they’ve dialed it up to eleven I’m not kidding. The text is full of little blatant references to dialog and images reflecting some scene from Star Wars or Firefly. It was kind of fun finding them. And whole characters are parodied. There is a princess with the rebels named Leenah. There is a plucky scoundrel in a freighter who rescues the princess. There is a bot that guards a young damsel in distress. The bot speaks with some combination of the diction of C3P0 and the Operative from Serenity. You can literally hear the toff British accent. And then to make sure you don’t miss any ingredients they are sometimes doubled. So, there are two scoundrels with freighters helping damsels in distress. There are two damsels in distress. There are two bounty hunters.

And there’s even a cantina. There are mob warlords with bounties on the plucky scoundrels. There is something like a dark lord whose name is Goth Sullus. So far there are no Jedi Knights but some of the characters seem to live forever so something’s going on there.

Suffice it to say that a lot of stuff is going on. And by the end of the book you can see that this is just the beginning of the story.

And now, what do I think of all this? Well, I have a theory about space opera. I believe that space opera has the potential to be very good or very bad. It entirely depends on the imaginative powers and writing skills of the author. Take an E. E. Doc Smith or an Edgar Rice Burroughs and you get the Lensman stories or Barsoom, fun and excitement. Take the likes of George Lucas and you end up with Jar Jar Binks or the latest Disney feminist trope with a light saber.

The good news is this is fun space opera. None of the damsels in distress rescue the hero. No one mentions race or gender studies terminology and the good guys aren’t ashamed of being good. I’m pretty sure the authors have included the homages to Star Wars imagery to sort of point out that the story doesn’t have to be bad just because of the space opera tropes. It just requires the story and characters to be interesting, likable and fun. And in this case they are. So if you like your space opera right up front without too much artistic restraint then I’d recommend Galactic Outlaws.

I read one of Nick Cole’s earlier books (CTRL ALT Revolt!) last year and liked it. So, when I heard he was involved in a mil-sf series I figured I’d check it out. It turns out it’s a dual authorship arrangement with Jason Anspach. I ordered it (I like to read books on paper) and read it last week.

I like well-written mil-sf. This is well-written. The story chronicles an elite military unit involved in a supposedly routine diplomatic mission that devolves into a catastrophe. It melds the feel of modern American military in the middle east (ala Black Hawk Down) with lineage going back to Rudyard Kipling’s India stories and translates it into a futuristic landscape of alien creatures, energy weapons and space cruisers. But the technology is definitely beside the point. The story is the camaraderie of men attempting to complete their mission and keep each other alive in an environment where bureaucratic amateur officers are just as dangerous as the enemy.

The protagonist (first person narrative for the most part) is an NCO in the “Legion.” Through his eyes we see his comrades display various strengths and weaknesses and we observe the “regular army” that are combined with the legionnaires on this mission attempting to adapt to a combat role they are unprepared for. And we observe non-combatants and the alien inhabitants of this planet at the “galaxy’s edge.”

If you like military science fiction you’ll probably like this book. If you even just like war stories you might like this book. It is volume one of a series but this book is sort of a stand-alone story. The series chronicles the saga of the Galactic Republic through the eyes of the Legion as an elite force cleaning up the messes being perpetrated by an increasingly autocratic state over its subject worlds at the periphery of the galaxy. Basically, it sounds like the Roman Republic devolving into the Roman Empire. Or is it the American Republic?

As you can probably guess from my comparison with Black Hawk Down, it’s not a happily ever after kind of tale. It’s a down beat story but if you like mil-sf then that’s probably no surprise. If not be warned.

So, here’s my opinion. This is a good stand-alone story. The story develops and the action and the sub-plots unfold in natural way. The characters are interesting and have enough development to allow you to cheer and boo the appropriate actors. I can definitely recommend it. For me the question is do I go forward with a longer series? From what I understand the individual books are separated in time. They document the history of this galactic civilization. Implicitly this means none of the characters will carry over to the next book. Can the authors generate enough new people to populate the series? I think I’ll try the next book in the series and see how that works out. I’ll report back on the next installment when I do.